Electronic commerce, or “e-commerce,” as it is commonly referred to, involves the sales of goods or services over, through or in conjunction with the Internet. Currently, e-commerce largely concerns the sale of goods or services that are relatively simple in terms of the product variability and complexity. Most e-commerce today derives from one of just a few categories of goods that meet this test of simplicity: books, compact discs, flowers and travel (mainly just airline seats). E-commerce is restricted to these categories of goods today largely because the goods themselves are simple enough that they can be presented in an catalog format. The customer does not need to consult with an expert in these goods or services before purchasing them. Thus, almost all Internet e-commerce sites today are sterile, pure self-service environments.
The complexity and variability of goods and services that sell online is increasing as greater numbers of enterprises of those goods seek to leverage the distributional efficiencies of the Internet. The increase in the complexity and variability of goods and services requires an increase in the consultative nature of the sales experience for the customer.
For example, in the travel category, most online purchasing activity currently relates to airline seats. When purchasing airline seats a customer has essentially two variables to deal with: (i) flight schedule and (ii) price. Otherwise, one airline seat is generally the same as any other. However, as the enterprises seek to sell exotic, luxury travel packages, such as safaris to Africa or boat trips through the Amazonian Rainforest over the Internet, the variables and the complexity of the sales process increases dramatically. For such a sale, a customer will want to know where to stay, what kinds of food to eat (and what kinds not to eat), whether the territory is considered dangerous or the trip is considered rigorous, whether special inoculations are required, and other complex questions. These questions demonstrate the added variety and complexity of the inputs necessary for the customer to make an informed purchase decision for this kind of service and they fundamentally require human interaction with a knowledgeable sales agent or product specialist to be answered in a meaningful way. The same type of complexity is inherent in the purchase of a variety of other goods and services including banking services (mortgages, retail banking, wealth planning), insurance services, electronics, luxury retail goods (fine watches, jewelry) and automobiles. Sale of these products requires a “trusted relationship” between a customer and a live sales expert who can use proven internal and external resources as collateral sales material to close the sale. Fundamentally, these products are sold, not just dropped in a shopping cart and purchased.
In the offline world today, purveyors of these complex goods and services strive to create comfortable retail environments in which knowledgeable personnel politely answer customers' questions about product and service features, capabilities, and alternatives, facilitate sales, and upsell related products and services, such as service warranties. For example, when shopping for a camera in an offline store, a sales associate will guide the customer toward the right camera, sell additional lenses, a case, batteries, a warranty, and perhaps some film before physically walking the customer to the cash register and closing the sale. E-commerce environments, by contrast, are almost completely self-service environments, notwithstanding the existence of chat platforms and other technologies that facilitate online interaction.
It is clear that there is a much higher level of interaction in the physical world. Customers have come to expect that there will be someone available in a physical location that can answer questions about products and direct them through the process. It is also frequently the case that a high-end shopper from a wealthy demographic is matched with a sales associate who, though otherwise skilled in the product to be sold, is mismatched with the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the buyer.
As enterprises attempt to increase the type and volume of goods and services bought through an online origination, the availability of knowledgeable expertise and assistance and relevant sales collateral materials must be addressed in order to persuade customers that they can obtain enough product-centric information to make buying over, through or in conjunction with the online channel an easy, pleasant experience that is equal or superior to shopping through other channels. Moreover, the Internet fundamentally changes the way goods and services are bought by customers. In the offline world, customers go to a store to buy a product; online, customers seek a product first, and then identify a store from which it can be purchased.
While a number of companies have extended existing call center technology into Internet sales environments in order to enable live voice or chat sessions with browsing customers, the Internet retail experience is still largely sterile and unsatisfying. Rather, the current online interaction focuses on customer service rather than sales—a significant distinction as customer services personnel are not well-suited to closing sales.
“Customer relationship management” (“CRM” or, as adopted for the online world, “eCRM”) solutions providers have existed for several years now. However, few if any of these solutions facilitate meaningful, direct human interaction through the online channel. In fact, many CRM solutions that have offered call center support for catalogs and have simply extended their product offering to include Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQ”), e-mail and chat—features that most of the eCRM companies have in common. Many eCRM enterprises have thus chosen to focus on facilitating “touchless” e-commerce transactions, i.e., transactions that do NOT require human intervention.
Online chat or instant messaging is the most personalized and sophisticated mode of customer/sales associate interaction. Using platforms developed by companies like AOL, these programs facilitate real-time online chat between the two parties, occasionally allowing the sales representative to “push” web pages or content to the customer in order to guide the customer to products or information. Some eCRM companies take this one step further by offering voice over IP. With voice over IP, if the customer has the right equipment on her computer she can talk to a customer service representative via the Internet. Most of the programs require the customer to log in to the chat session, allowing the customer service representative to maintain a history of customer contact. Some of the programs also allow the sales associate to view the complete customer purchase and communication history. Again, however, these platforms are typically staffed by customer service representatives and not sales associates and do not involve any “matching” of the right agent with the customer based on the agent's profile and skills, the customer's demographic and psychographic characteristics and the nature of the browsing opportunity.
FAQ services use historical “common” inquiries to generate template responses to customer questions. Some products go a step further and use artificial intelligence to analyze customer inquiries and generate “smart” answers. E-mail products also use gateway screening or artificial intelligence to answer customer questions in a more efficient manner than having a customer service representative personally respond to each question. Some e-mail programs also add direct e-mailing capabilities that can target and customize e-mail campaigns according to historical customer data. Some eCRM providers have product configurator applications. With these applications a customer is provided with a variety of questions regarding the features of the product they are interested in. Based on the answers to the questions the application will provide a suggestion as to the best configuration of the product for the customer. This solution is still a “touchless” experience from the standpoint of human interaction.
In general, CRM is reactionary—generally focused on post sale activity, such as, keeping existing customers, resolving problems, and managing customer relationships. CRM representatives are generalists, with no specific product or sales knowledge. By comparison, sales is proactive—focused on pre-sale activity, such as, obtaining customers, avoiding problems, creating customer relationships, and assisting customers in the purchase of goods or services. Sales associates are trained in the art of selling and posses specific and in-depth knowledge about goods and services.
A system does not exist that (i) matches browsing customers with experienced, knowledgeable sales personnel, (ii) provides relevant, opportunity-centric sales collateral information to the sales personnel and then (iii) facilitates the type of interaction between the customer and the sales person that is familiar in the offline world.